An campaign ally defending Joe Biden over allegations Hunter Biden exploited his father’s government position once lobbied on behalf of a Russian energy company.
On Wednesday, the New York Post reported on Amos Hochstein:
About four months after Hunter Biden’s correspondence with (Vadym) Pozharskyi, (Devon) Archer forwarded Hunter Biden an email chain with the subject line “tax raise impact on Burisma production,” which included Pozharskyi saying that the Ukrainian cabinet had submitted new tax legislation to the country’s parliament. “If enacted, this law would kill the entire private gas production sector in the bud,” Pozharskyi wrote. In the Sept. 24, 2014, email, Pozharskyi also said he was “going to share this information with the US embassy here in Kyiv, as well as the office of Mr Amos Hochstein in the States.” At the time, Hochstein was the State Department’s newly appointed special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs.
Today, Hochstein attempted to downplay the allegations that then-Vice President Biden met with Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, when Pozharskyi was in Washington, D.C.
Via Politico:
And senior Biden advisers who spoke to POLITICO on Wednesday — including Michael Carpenter and Amos Hochstein, who staffed the vice president at the time — similarly said that while there was never an official meeting, it’s technically conceivable that Pozharskyi would have approached Biden on the sidelines of some broader U.S.-Ukraine event. But they emphasized that they have no indication that happened, and that they had never heard of Pozharskyi before.
According to a Lobbying Disclosure Act filing, Hochstein was listed as the contact and lobbyist for ROA UES in 2003. A Washington Post story from January 25, 2003 referred to ROA UES as a “Russian energy monopoly” in which “the controlling stake belongs to the state.”
Hochstein’s firm, Cassidy & Associations was paid $600,000 from 2003-2005 to lobby on behalf of the Russian entity. That was disclosed in a Senate Lobbying Disclosure filing.
He went on to advise Biden “and Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry on U.S. efforts to curb Russia’s weaponization of energy in Europe,” according to his LinkedIn profile.
Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on Saturdays. Listen to segments on YouTube or download full podcast episodes. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, and follow him on Parler
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